Yes to deaconesses

Pope Francis has made a possible first step in the opening of the Catholic ministry to women.

One of the issues that causes controversy in our time is the refusal of the Catholic Church to ordain women to the priesthood, and therefore to the episcopate, which is only open to ordained priests. But the ministry is threefold, consisting of bishops, priests and deacons, and while the diaconate was until recently seen as only the last step to the priesthood, it is a separate ministry established by the Apostles in the New Testament. There were women deacons in the early church, but they fell out of use.

Deacons and Deaconesses

I was eighteen and a student at theological college, and as occasionally happened I sat at the superior's table at dinner. I have forgotten the full conversation that we enjoyed, but the issue of women priests was raised. He did not believe in them and came up with the objection that providing training facilities in what are male-only institutions would be difficult. I thought that the time that this was a mere administrative objection and not insuperable; but then I said to him, "Surely, they had women deacons in the early church?"

He replied, "Yes but all they did was arrange the flowers on the altar."

I had not the theological knowledge then to object, but you know sometimes that there is more to an issue, it's a gut feeling, so I kept my counsel and thought about it. But Pope Francis' recent decision to establish a committee to study the ordination of women to the diaconate has opened up the issue. There are some who regard it as the slippery slope to women priests, for this was the path taken by the Anglicans [Episcopalians] whereas others see it as opening a door that has been too long closed. While there is a case for saying that both sides are right, the diaconate is a separate ministry and we could have a women's diaconate without there being any implications for the possibility of women priests..

So what is a deacon? In Acts of the Apostles chapter 6 we read the tale of how the early church appointed seven males to perform the role of distributing bread to the needy so that the apostles could concentrate on preaching and teaching. The word diakonos denotes a servant, but not a slave [doulos/a.] But the diaconate took on a life of its own, and in the early church deacons soon developed a role in the church's liturgy,formal public worship. They performed baptisms, and here is where deaconesses came into their own. Baptism was performed naked by immersion in a pool, so to preserve women's modesty deaconesses baptized women. But it is unclear that they did anything else, but sadly documents are often unclear and few and far between. However, by the time that Constantine made Christianity the favoured religion of the empire, women deacons were no longer wanted and the ministry of women faded out. Since that time supporters of the status quo have performed theological acrobatics to find reasons not to have women in the ministry.

But why did they fall out of favour? Easy to answer, pure sexism! The church was obtaining a role in the power structure of Roman society, and, female readers, if you think that modern society is sexist, ancient Rome was worse. Romans simply could not understand the idea that women could exercise authority, especially not over a male. so the idea of women priests and deacons was completely out of their mindset. So for centuries now Catholicism has inherited an authority system corrupted by the values of ancient Rome. Some think that it is time to put right this situation to bring the church closer to what God would want it to be.

Women Deacons

Modern Roles

A few week ago I attended the ordination in which a young deacon was ordained a priest. For most young males the diaconate is the last step to the priesthood. But there are permanent deacons in the church, all male at the moment, who perform many tasks that a priest does. A deacon cannot hear confessions or celebrate mass, for this requires priestly ordination, but he can preach, read the gospel at mass and distribute communion, and also baptize. Deacons do much pastoral work in the church, visiting sick people and old people, etc, and maybe doing catechesis, teaching the faith to the young.

But the ministry of lay people has been growing in the church, and many now read the scriptures at mass, as I do, though as a layman I do not read the gospel. which is reserved to the priest or deacon. Lay people give out communion, though they are not authorized to consecrate bread and wine. They also do charitable work and catechesis. The lay people who do this are both men and women. So it seems that there is much that deacons do that is already done by women. In emergency any Christian can administer baptism. Lay baptism involves the simple rite with water, but the full service involves anointing, but if women can do the essential bit, the pouring of water on the head, why can they not do the extras? It does not make sense.

Then we come to preaching. Certain religious groups do not allow women to preach. But the Catholic Church has never had a complete ban on this. The rule for preachers in the Catholic Church is that to preach in a diocese they must have the authorization of the bishop, who must satisfy himself of their wisdom, holiness and general sanity, in other words whether they are fit to be allowed in front of a congregation.There is a good reason for this, because in eleventh century Europe rogue preachers stirred up mobs against Jews and caused serious difficulties for both state and church who had to prevent them, so the Lateran Councils placed restrictions on who is allowed to preach in the formal liturgy of the church. This was a good ruling and one that no good Catholic should contravene,as it prevents cranks and evil people hijacking the service to their ends. This does not prevent lay Catholics from giving talk at informal services, but the liturgy of the Church is strictly controlled for the benefit and safety of all.

The preacher should be a person who shares his wisdom and holiness with the congregation. but are we to say that women are incapable of the holiness and wisdom required to preach, or are they incapable of communicating well enough? Only a sexist harking back to the neanderthal period would think that this was so [but I think that my metaphor is being unfair to neanderthals.] Sorry cavemen! No serious thinker would deem women lacking in the intelligence required to preach.

Women in the Church

If lay people, including women, are currently performing roles in the church done by deacons,there is no reason to withhold the diaconate from women. There are many women longing to join the ministry and the diaconate is the first step. It is not necessarily the door to women priests, but it could be and I believe that it should be.

Catholics believe that a longing to join the ministry properly and thoughtfully reflected on and considered is a sign that God may be calling you to the ministry. Well, he certainly seems to be calling women in other churches, so why not those in the Catholic Church.Often humans obstruct God's will, and I fear that this is what traditionalists in the church are doing.

Anyone in the ministry represents Christ, but those who make the claim that Christ was a male forget that while the historic Jesus was biological male, the risen Christ has transcended masculinity and femininity, so Christ cannot be exclusively be represented by males. Women can represent Christ as well as men can and should be allowed to be ordained. Deaconesses are just a start.

Comments

One interesting point. Christians believe that Christ is the incarnate wisdom of God, but for both Jews and Greeks wisdom was seen as feminine, so if this is to be taken seriously, Christ's male body should be matched with feminine element to his personality, so the idea that only a male can represent Christ is profoundly wrong. Christ can be represented by a feminine person.

An article in the Catholic Herald [Friday 19th August 2016] linked belief in deaconesses and women priests to theological liberalism. Readers should be aware that I, a believer in women's ordination, am not and never have been a theological liberal. I am a Christian who believes that he has to be true to the belief that men and women are equal in Christ and that it is wrong to believe that only a male can represent Christ.

This article quotes from an ancient liturgy of the Coptic church which mentions the women who exercise the diaconate. There is also a reference to Pope Gelasius' condemnation of bishops who were ordaining women, about 494 AD. So resistance to women priests has not been universal, but it has been dominated by powerful men

De Verginitate, a work attributed to St Athanasius,states that there is neither male nor female in heaven but that in heaven women attain the status of men. But this misses a key point of Christian theology. Heaven is not a place,but a state, and it has already started in saved souls, so the implication for the ordination of women is that in the church, the community who have accepted salvation, they are equal now and can therefore be ordained.

We must also recall that after Christ the holiest of mere mortals was a woman, Mary his mother.

I do recall the "almost" part. It was from the secular news who are not up on Church matters, so I thought you might clarify this point, and you did. Thanks. There was a time when both the Anglicans and the Lutherans were close to rejoining the Catholic Church, but women priests and infallibility were the two sticking points.

John Paul II. But he did not and could not declare ex cathedra [infallibly] , as to make an infallible statement he would need to be speaking the mind of the whole church, and there is no agreement in the church on this matter. The conservatives were reduced to saying that the papal statement was nearly infallible, which means that it isn't. Benedict the Sixteenth quietly went against making authoritative pronouncements and preferred to rely on the strength of his [powerful and well educated] mind, and I thought him more impressive than JPII. Francis does not bother with authoritarianism, but relies on the intrinsic power of his words, and he has had a great impact on the religious world.

I suppose that the rules for women deacons would be the same as the rules for male deacons.

I thought a past pope, and I cannot remember which one, made it doctrine that women not be priests, or came close to doing so. As for women decons would they be allowed to marry? Once a man is a permanent or transitional deacon he can no longer marry, but if already married can remain so for permanent deacons.

Your observation highlights the urgency of the reform. Of course, deacons cannot say mass, but their services will still be valuable.

That there are still those who object to women ministers is shown by the fact that my son, who is marrying an Anglican woman in her church, was asked by the female vicar whether he objected to the service being performed by a woman priest. Of course he did not object.

There are people at my church who oppose women priests .... no wonder we do not have a parish priest of our own and have visiting ones every week or a neighbouring parish priest. I would sooner have a woman Catholic priest than none.

Good! I think that the problem in the church has several roots. One is the conservative principle of "Never been done,therefore can't be done." This is linked to the idea that change is bad, and also to the idea that one sex [males] needs to carve out a little patch exclusively to themselves. But there are women who oppose women priests and deacons, one of whom said to me that she could never receive communion from a woman.

The same student responded to my statement that God was as much female as male by saying, "I could never worship a female."